Angel Olsen Announces New ‘Aisles’ EP, Shares Cover of Laura Branigan’s ‘Gloria’

Angel Olsen has announced a new EP of ’80s covers called Aisles. The project, which is out August 20, features her takes on songs by Laura Branigan, Billy Idol, Men Without Hats, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and Alphaville. Check out Olsen’s cover of Branigan’s ‘Gloria’ below, and find the EP’s cover artwork and tracklist.

The Aisles EP was recorded in the winter of 2020 with co-producer and engineer Adam McDaniel at Drop of Sun Studios in Ashville. “I told Adam I had an idea to record some covers and bring some of the band into the mix, or add other players,” Olsen said in a press release. “I needed to laugh and have fun and be a little less serious about the recording process in general. I thought about completely changing some of the songs and turning them inside out. I’d come over to find Adam had set up 5 or so synthesisers, and we’d get lost on a part for a while messing with some obscure pedal I knew nothing about. We’d spend a good amount of time going through sounds before finding one or two, sometimes we’d get real weird and decide to just go with it.”

Speaking about her decision to cover ‘Gloria’, she added: “I’d heard ‘Gloria’ for the first time at a family Christmas gathering and was amazed at all the aunts who got up to dance. I imagined them all dancing and laughing in slow motion, and that’s when I got the idea to slow the entire song down and try it out in this way.”

Aisles will be released via Olsen’s new Jagjaguwar imprint somethingscosmic. “I’m very excited to be introducing somethingscosmic, an imprint that will serve as the home for all my covers, collaborations, and one off singles,” said Olsen. “In this time away from touring I have been inspired to create more, and somethingscosmic will give the me flexibility to release when and how I want to with the help from my longtime partners at Jagjaguwar. The hope is that it will become a place for all of my creative endeavors, music and otherwise.”

This past spring, Olsen released the Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories box set. More recently, she joined forces with Sharon Van Etten for the song ‘Like I Used To’.